I was so excited about the product from the minute I heard of it. In January, 2007 Kevin Beares took me into his office and showed me the three servers running a VERY early alpha (read: dogfood) build of what would eventually be called Microsoft Essential Business Server 2008. As he explained the technology I was thrilled… it was what I always hoped would become of SBS, but for mid-market.

I was quite involved in the pre-release of the product, writing courseware, presentations, and labs for both Microsoft and Microsoft Canada. I was, to many in Canada, the public technical face of the product, having presented the product in most of the major markets to partners and potential clients months before the release.

The problem was that when the product did release, there wasn’t as much excitement as everyone had hoped.

EBS was a good first generation product, a very respectable big cousin to Small Business Server, and while there was no doubt there were kinks to be worked out, those would come in the second version. This is not new.

Several months ago, when sales of EBS machines were as close to zero as statistically possible, I was asked what I felt Microsoft could have – or should have done differently. I had two simple answers, one of which was probably bad judgment, but a call that I would have made too, had it been my decision. I will not share that opinion publicly.

The second thing that went wrong with EBS was luck, or at least timing. Unfortunately they had a product that would cost the customer $20,000 minimum between hardware and software, plus likely the same amount in consulting costs, and they launched it a couple of weeks after the world economy crashed – when people were looking to cut costs. No amount of Microsoft Spin would be able to convince the majority of companies who would have benefitted from the product that they should spend the money.

I was so proud a year ago to announce that I was among the inaugural class Microsoft MVPs awarded in Essential Business Server; however you will; notice from my blog that I stopped writing about the product long ago because nobody was interested in what I had to say about it. Thirteen months after that proud day my award category was switched to Windows Desktop Experience (read: Windows 7). I hated to admit it, but I was happier to be one of 250-odd MVPs in a hugely popular technology than I was to be one of (at the time) 9 MVPs in a product with a worldwide install base of fewer than 100.

Still and all I was excited about the upcoming release of EBS vNext. It had great potential, the team listened to those of us who were telling them what was wrong with it. It looked great, and I was even trying to get one of my clients to join the Technology Assessment (TAP) Program because they could eventually have been the big EBS shop when the technology flourished. They decided not to join, and now I am glad they did.

This morning’s announcement saddened me, although it did not surprise me. Like Response Point before it, some technologies are just a hard sell, especially when there are so many alternatives.

Still and all, I want to thank all of the people who were responsible for bringing us EBS – Nick, Kevin, Chuck, Mike, and so many more. You did a great job, but your technology was killed by the times.

8 Replies

I think that the response to SBS could have precipitated this. SBS remains such a poor product that any really serious company bypasses it (violates so many best practices and so much common sense and creates so much lock in) that when EBS came out the companies that it would be appropriate for didn't want to go down that road even though it was way better than SBS.

EBS didn't have the "new shop" entry point of SBS. Any shop that big already was running Windows servers so the EBS package didn't make as much sense since it would have meant ripping and replacing existing infrastructure that was probably more flexible.

I agree, EBS was fine on its own, I just think that its market niche was not well defined and that unlike SBS its potential market customers almost never were ready to buy a whole new "base" set of servers rather than little pieces here or there. Those that might could easily have not gone through that buying cycle during EBS' short run. It didn't even last through a single enterprise buying cycle!

I never understood EBS place in the market. When you start running the numbers it very quickly becomes less costly to run the standard server products.

well it was cheaper for the initial licenses than buying all the products and it simplified management and monitoring of the products.moving from sbs 2003 to ebs 2008 makes alot of sense because your use to the consoles and the price discounts but if you went beyond the 300 user limmit it becomes expensive to replace with standard products even with any disscounts assuming you actually recieve them.

"Because EBS was based on Longhorn Server (which became Windows Server 2008), it faced a lengthy time to market. The first beta shipped in 2006 and featured a torturous and integrated Setup routine spread across multiple DVDs, requiring 8 hours to progress through about 20 steps. (This was, however, an improvement over installing the servers separately, which could take 80 hours and 140 steps, according to Microsoft.)

As part of what later became a Window Essential Server Solutions family of products that included Windows Home Server and SBS, EBS provided an extensible, central management console with environment monitoring capabilities. (That work, I think, will live on in future products.)"

"Ultimately, the setup and management integration in EBS wasn't enough to attract a lot of customers. I think the reasons for this are somewhat obvious, and define the midmarket itself. While there are many, many small businesses and a small but lucrative enterprise market, the midmarket is sort of nebulous. This tweener market is an awkward meshing of the cash-strapped small business market with the needs of the enterprise. And it's small, too. "

The online community new groups are on fire about Microsoft’s decision to end-of-life Windows Essential Business Server (EBS). Microsoft’s announcement caught the SMB community by surprise last Friday (see my “breaking news” e-mail last Friday afternoon on this topic).

I will use this article to update last week’s announcement.

Resources– this EBS conversation is dynamic. There are two community newsgroups that I suggest you join and monitor for this EBS story and other relevant content:

Definition: Let’s remember exactly what EBS is. Over the weekend I received numerous e-mails from folks who never really had the chance to meet EBS properly. Fair enough – exactly what are we talking about?

EBS was positioned as an infrastructure suite for the mid-market. EBS came in two versions: standard and premium. It consists of up to four separate servers: Management, Messaging, Security, plus the Database server (in the premium edition). The infrastructure suite used all of the well-known Microsoft back office components, including Windows Server 2008, Exchange, System Center Essentials, SharePoint, Forefront, and SQL Server. A quick study can be found here:

Partner impact? Long-time SBSer Charles Carkeek shared this story that brings home the fact that real partners were impacted by this decision last Friday:

How sad to hear that EBS is finished. I have a not-for-profit client running 100 seats of Terminal Services Desktops, on EBS, on a Hyper-V platform (four virtual servers) hosted at Grant Thompson’s MB Technology Group. I have also put this same customer on 100 seats of BPOS, migrated them to it, and they love it. I moved them from SBS because they got too big. Well, time to regroup.

I’m going to go read the links in your newsletter.

I’m looking forward to SMB Nation in Las Vegas!

Thank you,
Charles

EBS alternatives?

Charles surfaces a valid point about regrouping. What alternatives exist for us post-EBS? Later last Friday, after terminating EBS, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave a speech that Microsoft is "all in" for "Cloud Computing." The vision statement, recited at the University of Washington, suggests that Microsoft Online Services – led by the Business Productivity Online Suite, is clearly Microsoft’s new mantra.

Conclusion: I believed EBS was a thoughtful product for the mid-market and the return of the 1990s’ circa BackOffice product. It had a fantastic GEEK dimension to it as it required lots of relevant planning before deployment. The scenario wizards were amazing. Please share your thoughts with me as I’m not done covering this story yet!